The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

I've shied away from some of Neal Stephenson's later co-written works.
But peeking at the first few pages at Barnes & Noble hooked me… so I
went home and bought the book from Amazon. (No brainer: $35 list price
vs. $21 at Amazon.) Mr. Stephenson's co-writer is Nicole Galland, and
they make a mighty team.

Genre pigeon-holers will have a tough time. There's plenty of hard SF,
time-travel implemented via ingenious gadgetry based on Schrödinger's
famous box; but (oops) the gadgets only work with the cooperation of
actual witches, which makes it kinda fantasy; and there's plenty of
historical-fiction-style derring-do; and there's Tom Clancy-style
military intrigue. And…

■ I should note that
yesterday,
we made fun of Lady Googlers staying home from work in response to
the publicized
"Google’s Ideological Echo
Chamber" memo. Ann Althouse
plausibly
argues that the NPR-reported story
could be fake news. I've added an update to yesterday's post. Yes, a
little voice was telling me
that story was "too good to check", but I
ignored it.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—At a special press conference held at the
technology giant’s sprawling campus Tuesday, Google engineers
revealed exciting new technology that autocorrects any errant
thoughts its users are having, replacing them with positions
approved by the company.

For others, even to ask what’s wrong with the memo is sexist: “To go through the emotional, and
physical, labor of explaining the misguided memo would only be to
validate it, and opens the door further for somebody else to raise
the same ‘arguments’ later.” It doesn’t matter whether you
agree with the dissenter, or what your own views are. To even want
to discuss the issue, to even want to ask for reasons, makes you a
wicked dissenter, too.

Among the amusements in Tracinski's article, a Tweeter's reaction to the Memo of Doom is quoted: (1) "if I worked there I
would just walk to his desk and beat the shit out of him"; (2)
musing about "fascists" and "fascism". I wonder if he/she took
his/her brown
shirt off between (1) and (2)?

Another debt ceiling fight is just around the corner. The
government's borrowing limit will need to be raised yet again by the
end of September to avoid default. Indications suggest that there
will be enough support between Democrats and moderate Republicans to
pass a "clean" increase, meaning no spending limits or cuts will be
attached. However, this fiscal status quo is absolutely
unacceptable, especially because it would be easy to take a small
step toward much-needed fiscal discipline.

For the record, I find a "Black Flies Matter" T-shirt slightly
amusing, Confederate flags to be an abomination. But a Facebook
poster made the inevitable connection:

"This is NH go ahead and display the confederate (sic) flag. We
embrace the veterans of the civil war (sic) and respect the history
behind it. Also we are the live free or die state. So keep living
free," AJ Evarts wrote in his 5-star review.

Here's the thing, AJ: if you're saying people should be free to buy
and sell just about anything they want, fine. But it would be nice
if you realized that LFOD and the Confederate Flag symbolize two
mutually incompatible viewpoints.

■ Another LFOD invocation in this Union Leader column from
Bill Walker: Tax
marijuana, not entrepreneurs. He observes that "Organized crime
went into recession after Prohibition, but they got their bailout
when in 1937, FDR signed an
anti-marijuana
law." [Link added.] So…

FDR’s nanny-state approach to drugs has never worked well anywhere,
least of all here. How could it? New Hampshire was never about
trying to build a nanny state. We were, and are, about Live Free or
Die.

Legalize and tax marijuana. Cut taxes on our businesses. Bring the best jobs to New Hampshire.

In Transmission, Trinity is on a mission to love and accept herself.
The only problem is that she has a penis, and everyone thinks she's
a boy. Aided by her Tranny Godmother Madonna, her alter ego LaJina
Jones, Punany Poet and her secret lover codenamed "James Franco,"
Trinity comes to accept her transgender reality and is faced with a
choice: Live free or die. Taking a ride on the trans-train unmasks a
universal commonality: Each of us is struggling to transition from a
life of self-doubt and condemnation, to one of internal happiness
and peace.

Ticket prices are not free, but a low, low $15. In Hollywood, that's a steal.

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